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[ecrea] ICA Young Scholars Preconference on Visual Methods

Wed Dec 10 08:29:04 GMT 2014



Call for Papers

for the ICA Young Scholars Preconference on

Visual Methods


Universidad del Turabo (Caguas, Puerto Rico)
21 May 2015


Sponsored by the ICA Visual Communication Studies Division, the Universidad del Turabo (Caguas, Puerto Rico), the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research at the University of Hamburg (Germany) and the Institut de la Comunicació at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain)
Organizers: Michael Grimm & Maria Luna


Rationale

In the field of communication studies, mediated images are becoming increasingly important and receive more and more attention from a diverse range of scholars throughout the sub-disciplines covered by ICA – as mirrored by buzzwords like “visual turn” or “pictorial turn” (Mitchell, 2005): Political Communication e.g. is interested in the depiction of politicians and their nonverbal behavior (Grabe & Bucy, 2009), Health Communication e.g. analyzes how obesity is visually framed (Atanasova, Gunter & Koteyko, 2013), Environmental Communication e.g. focuses on the portrayal of climate change (Grittmann, 2014; Manzo, 2009) and Popular Communication e.g. examines the role of visual stereotypes in mass media (Kitch, 2001).

This increasing attention on mediated images makes it necessary to find or develop ways to adequately analyze visuals and to make the methodological procedures of studying them reproducible. At the same time, there are specifics to mediated images (such as their associative, holistic and non-linear logic compared to the linear-sequential logic of texts, Müller, 2007; comp. Messaris & Abraham, 2001) that often make it challenging to analyze them with traditional methods of communication studies. Accordingly, these methods have either to be adapted to the specifics of visual communication (like in the case of visual content analysis; comp. Bell, 2001), or creative and innovative methods have to be developed.

As the field of visual methods is however still in its establishing process (for an overview: Rose, 2012; van Leeuwen & Jewitt, 2001), it is a challenge for young scholars from all ICA sub-disciplines to get an overview on the transdisciplinary potentials and limitations of particular methods. Furthermore, scholars studying mediated images are scattered throughout the diverse divisions and interest groups, which makes it even harder for young scholars to discuss challenges associated with visual methods with their respective peers and leaves synergies between the different sub-fields underused.

This preconference will therefore bring together young scholars from all ICA divisions and interest groups who deal with mediated images in their research projects. The event aims ...

* to give an overview on the potentials, challenges and limitations of different visual methods in order to account for the increasingly important role of analyzing mediated images throughout communication studies, * to provide a forum for a common discussion on a current methodological topic of diverse sub-disciplines of communication studies in order to contribute to ICA’s striving for cross-divisional cooperation, and * to connect and foster young scholars across all ICA divisions and interest groups by bringing them together with peers who are facing similar challenges as well as with experienced senior scholars who are experts with regard to particular visual methods.




Format

The preconference will consist of two formats: A poster session and an experts’ session.

In the poster session, young scholars will have the opportunity to present research projects in which they apply visual methods, to discuss their methodology with other participants and to receive substantial feedback on their projects from experienced senior scholars. All young and senior scholars will participate in the poster session, so the format will provide a practice-oriented overview on the range of traditional as well as creative and innovative visual methods and their applications.

In the experts’ session, young scholars will have the chance to discuss the transdisciplinary potentials and limitations of particular visual methods with respective senior scholars who hold extensive expertise with regard to these methods. Therefore, young scholars who apply similar visual methods in their projects will be grouped together and will be matched with respectively experienced senior scholars. The groups will then discuss the particular potentials, challenges and limitations of these methods based on the research projects presented in the posters.


Senior Experts

Several senior scholars with extensive experience in visual methods will support the preconference, providing for a broad coverage of the field and assuring for the best fit of young scholars’ interests and senior scholars’ expertise:

    * Giorgia Aiello, University of Leeds, UK
    * Mary A. Bock, University of Texas (Austin, TX), USA
* Lilie Chouliaraki, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
    * Shahira Fahmy, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), USA
    * Paul Frosh, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
    * Robert Hariman, Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), USA
    * John Lucaites, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), USA
    * Marion G. Müller, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany
    * Carmen Oquendo Villar, Universidad del Turabo, Puerto Rico


Submissions

We invite young scholars from all ICA divisions and interest groups to submit extended abstracts on completed projects as well as on works in progress, focusing on the application of visual methods in their research. We welcome submissions on a broad range of visual methods, both, traditional as well as creative and innovative. These may comprise, but are not restricted to:

    * compositional interpretation
    * visual content analysis
    * social semiotic analysis
    * visual discourse analysis
    * visual narrative analysis
    * cultural analysis
    * ethnographic analysis
    * photo-documentation
    * photo-elicitation
    * photo- and video-essays
    * picture sorting studies
    * eye-tracking studies

To anticipate the research tradition of the host country Puerto Rico, we also explicitly encourage submissions that reflect visual methods in line with current Latin American research (e.g. video-essays, audiovisual thinking, creative documentary and film studies).

Extended abstracts should briefly summarize relevance, theory and results (where applicable), and strongly focus on the methodological procedures of the research project. Please specifically highlight and discuss the potentials, challenges and limitations of the applied visual methods in the context of the respective study. Submissions may describe the application of one, multiple or mixed visual methods in any stage of the visual communication process (production context, media context, reception context) or even on multiple stages.

Extended abstracts should be limited to a maximum of 1,000 words (double-spaced; illustrations, tables and references do not count against this total of words). Please remove all identifying information from the document and include a separate title page indicating the name(s) of the author(s), the title of the project, and the status quo of the project (e.g. completed project, work in progress).

Please send your submissions via e-mail to (m.grimm /at/ hans-bredow-institut.de) and (MariaFernanda.Luna /at/ uab.cat) by 23 January 2015. Decisions will be made by 15 February 2015. The preconference will be open for up to 25 young scholars in order to assure a productive group size. Participants will be selected based on the quality of their extended abstracts. In the review process, we will also consider that a reasonable range of visual methods will be covered by the poster presentations and that participants can be grouped in clusters with similar interests.


Publication of Proceedings

In cooperation with the Institute of Communication Studies (In-Com) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), there will be an option to publish the revised presentations as full papers of a special issue e-book on visual methods on the website www.portalcomunicacion.com after the preconference. The well-positioned website is supported by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Catalan Government and publishes academic content with a focus on Latin American audiences, so it is a perfect platform to communicate the outcomes of the event to the host country. The publication will foster cross-disciplinary understanding and may serve as proceedings in the growing field of visual methods.


Venue

The preconference will be hosted on the campus of the Unversidad del Turabo in Caguas, which is about a half an hour ride from the conference hotels in San Juan. Bus transportation for participants will be provided.


Fee

There will be a US$ 25 fee for participants of the preconference to cover the costs for transportation, snacks and drinks.


Website

Please also visit the accompanying website www.visualmethods.net for any updates on the preconference.


Contact

Michael Grimm
Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research
at the University of Hamburg (Germany)
(m.grimm /at/ hans-bredow-institut.de)

Maria Luna
Institute of Communication Studies (In-Com)
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain)
(MariaFernanda.Luna /at/ uab.cat)

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